This article may be confusing or unclear to readers. In particular, multiple sentences are tagged as needing clarification. Please help clarify the article. There might be a discussion about this on the talk page. (March 2022) (Learn how and when to remove this template message)
This article is in list format but may read better as prose. You can help by converting this article, if appropriate. Editing help is available. (April 2022)

Illustration of a non-fungible token generated by a smart contract (a program designed to automatically execute contract terms)
Illustration of a non-fungible token generated by a smart contract (a program designed to automatically execute contract terms)

A non-fungible token (NFT) is a financial security consisting of digital data stored in a blockchain, a form of distributed ledger. The ownership of an NFT is recorded in the blockchain, and can be transferred by the owner, allowing NFTs to be sold and traded. NFTs typically contain references to digital files such as photos, videos, and audio. Because NFTs are uniquely identifiable, they differ from cryptocurrencies, which are fungible. The market value of an NFT is associated with the digital file it references.

Proponents of NFTs claim that NFTs provide a public certificate of authenticity or proof of ownership, but the legal rights conveyed by an NFT can be uncertain. The ownership of an NFT as defined by the blockchain has no inherent legal meaning, and does not necessarily grant copyright, intellectual property rights, or other legal rights over its associated digital file. An NFT does not restrict the sharing or copying of its associated digital file, and does not prevent the creation of NFTs that reference identical files.

The NFT market grew dramatically from 2020–2021: the trading of NFTs in 2021 increased to more than $17 billion, up by 21,000% over 2020's total of $82 million.[1] NFTs have been used as speculative investments, and they have drawn increasing criticism for the energy cost and carbon footprint associated with validating blockchain transactions as well as their frequent use in art scams.[2] The NFT market has also been compared to an economic bubble or a Ponzi scheme.[3]

Characteristics

An NFT is a unit of data, stored on a type of digital ledger called a blockchain, which can be sold and traded.[4] The NFT can be associated with a particular digital or physical asset including but not limited to, art, songs, and sport highlights[5] and a license to use the asset for a specified purpose.[6] An NFT (and, if applicable, the associated license to use, copy, or display the underlying asset) can be traded and sold on digital markets.[7] The extralegal nature of NFT trading usually results in an informal exchange of ownership over the asset that has no legal basis for enforcement,[8] and so often confers little more than use as a status symbol.[9]

NFTs function like cryptographic tokens, but unlike cryptocurrencies such as Bitcoin or Ethereum, NFTs are not mutually interchangeable, and so are not fungible. (While all bitcoins are equal, each NFT may represent a different underlying asset and thus may have a different value.)[10] NFTs are created when blockchains concatenate records containing cryptographic hashes—sets of characters that identify a set of data—onto previous records, creating a chain of identifiable data blocks.[11] This cryptographic transaction process ensures the authentication of each digital file[clarification needed] by providing a digital signature that tracks NFT ownership.[11] Data links that are part of NFT records, that for example may point to details about where the associated art is stored, can be affected by link rot.[12]

Copyright

A diagram showing the right to own of an non-fungible token and linked file. In most cases, it is heavily dependent on the token's smart contract.
A diagram showing the right to own of an non-fungible token and linked file. In most cases, it is heavily dependent on the token's smart contract.

Ownership of an NFT does not inherently grant copyright or intellectual property rights to the digital asset the NFT purports to represent.[13][14] Someone may sell an NFT that represents their work, but the buyer will not necessarily receive copyright to that work, so the seller may create additional NFTs of the same work.[15][16] So an NFT is merely proof of ownership[clarification needed] separate from copyright.[14][17] According to legal scholar Rebecca Tushnet, "In one sense, the purchaser acquires whatever the art world thinks they have acquired. They definitely do not own the copyright to the underlying work unless it is explicitly transferred."[18]

History

Early history (2014–2017)

The first known "NFT", Quantum,[19] was created by Kevin McCoy and Anil Dash in May 2014. It consists of a video clip made by McCoy's wife, Jennifer. McCoy registered the video on the Namecoin blockchain and sold it to Dash for $4, during a live presentation for the Seven on Seven conference at the New Museum in New York City. McCoy and Dash referred to the technology as "monetized graphics".[20] This explicitly linked a non-fungible, tradable blockchain marker to a work of art, via on-chain metadata (enabled by Namecoin). This is in contrast to the multi-unit, fungible, metadata-less "colored coins" of other blockchains and Counterparty.[clarification needed][21]

In October 2015, the first NFT project, Etheria, was launched and demonstrated at DEVCON 1 in London, Ethereum's first developer conference, three months after the launch of the Ethereum blockchain. Most of Etheria's 457 purchasable and tradable hexagonal tiles went unsold for more than five years until March 13, 2021, when renewed interest in NFTs sparked a buying frenzy. Within 24 hours, all tiles of the current version and a prior version, each hardcoded to 1 ETH (US$0.43 at the time of launch), were sold for a total of US$1.4 million.[22]

The term "NFT" only achieved wider usage with the ERC-721 standard, first proposed in 2017 via the Ethereum GitHub, following the launch of various NFT projects that year.[23][24] The standard coincided with the launch of several NFT projects, including Curio Cards, CryptoPunks (a project to trade unique cartoon characters, released by the American studio Larva Labs on the Ethereum blockchain),[25][26] and rare Pepe trading cards.[23]

Increased public awareness (2017–present)

Uses

Commonly associated files

NFTs have been used to exchange digital tokens that link to a digital file asset. Ownership of an NFT is often associated with a license to use such a linked digital asset, but generally does not confer copyright to the buyer. Some agreements only grant a license for personal, non-commercial use, while other licenses also allow commercial use of the underlying digital asset.[35]

Digital art

Digital art is a common use case for NFTs.[36] High-profile auctions of NFTs linked to digital art have received considerable public attention. The work entitled Merge by artist Pak was the most expensive NFT, with an auction price of US$91.8 million[37] and Everydays: the First 5000 Days, by artist Mike Winkelmann (known professionally as Beeple) the second most expensive at US$69.3 million in 2021.[7][38]

Some digital art NFTs, like these pixel art characters, are examples of generative art.
Some digital art NFTs, like these pixel art characters, are examples of generative art.

Some NFT collections, including Bored Apes, EtherRocks and CryptoPunks are examples of generative art, where many different images are created by assembling a selection of simple picture components in different combinations.[39]

In March 2021, the blockchain company Injective Protocol bought a $95,000 original screen print entitled Morons (White) from English graffiti artist Banksy, and filmed somebody burning it with a cigarette lighter. They minted[jargon explanation needed] and sold the video as an NFT.[40][41] The person who destroyed the artwork, who called themselves "Burnt Banksy", described the act as a way to transfer a physical work of art to the NFT space.[41]

American curator and art historian Tina Rivers Ryan, who specializes in digital works, said that art museums are widely not convinced that NFTs have "lasting cultural relevance."[42] Ryan compares NFTs to the net art fad before the dot-com bubble.[43] No centralized means of authentication exists to prevent stolen and counterfeit digital works from being sold as NFTs, although auction houses like Sotheby's, Christie's, and various museums and galleries worldwide started collaborations and partnerships with digital artists such as Refik Anadol, Dangiuz and Sarah Zucker, selling NFTs associated with digital artworks (via NFT platforms) and showcasing those artworks (associated with the respective NFTs) both in virtual galleries and real life screens, monitors, and TVs.[44][45]

Games

Main article: Blockchain game

NFTs can represent in-game assets, such as digital plots of land. Some commentators describe these as being controlled "by the user" instead of the game developer[46] if they can be traded on third-party marketplaces without permission from the game developer.[47]

Music

In February 2021, NFTs reportedly generated around US$25 million in the music industry, with artists selling artwork and music as NFT tokens.[56] On February 28, 2021, electronic dance musician 3LAU sold a collection of 33 NFTs for a total of US$11.7 million to commemorate the three-year anniversary of his Ultraviolet album.[57][58] On March 3, 2021, an NFT was made to promote the Kings of Leon album When You See Yourself.[59] Other musicians who have used NFTs include American rapper Lil Pump,[60][61][62] Grimes,[63] visual artist Shepard Fairey in collaboration with record producer Mike Dean,[64] and rapper Eminem.[65]

Film

Other associated files

Speculation

NFTs representing digital collectables and artworks are a speculative asset.[85] The NFT buying surge was called an economic bubble by experts, who also compared it to the Dot-com bubble.[86][87] In March 2021 Mike Winkelmann called NFTs an "irrational exuberance bubble".[88] By mid-April 2021, demand subsided, causing prices to fall significantly.[89] Financial theorist William J. Bernstein compared the NFT market to 17th-century tulip mania, saying any speculative bubble requires a technological advance for people to "get excited about", with part of that enthusiasm coming from the extreme predictions being made about the product.[90]

Money laundering

NFTs, as with other blockchain securities and with traditional art sales, can potentially be used for money laundering.[91] Auction platforms for NFT sales may face regulatory pressure to comply with anti-money laundering legislation. Gou Wenjun, the director of the Anti-Money Laundering Monitoring and Analysis Centre for the People's Bank of China, expressed that NFTs could "easily become money-laundering tools." Gou elaborated that there is increasing unlawful exploitation of various new cryptographic technologies, and that illicit actors often self-identify as innovators of the financial technology sector.[92]

A February 2022 study from the United States Treasury assessed that there was "some evidence of money laundering risk in the high-value art market," including through "the emerging digital art market, such as the use of non-fungible tokens (NFTs)."[93] The study considered how NFT transactions may be a simpler option for laundering money through art by avoiding the transportation or insurance complications in trading physical art. Several NFT exchanges were labeled as virtual asset service providers that may be subject to Financial Crimes Enforcement Network regulations.[94] In March 2022, two people were charged for the execution of a $1,000,000 NFT scheme through wire fraud.[95]

Other uses

Standards in blockchains

Specific token standards support various blockchain use-cases. Ethereum was the first blockchain to support NFTs with its ERC-721 standard[100] and this is currently[may be outdated as of March 2022] the most widely used. Many other blockchains have added or plan to add support for NFTs.[101]

ERC-721 was the first standard for representing non-fungible digital assets on the Ethereum blockchain. ERC-721 is an inheritable Solidity smart contract standard; "inheritable" means that developers can create new ERC-721-compliant contracts by copying from a reference implementation. ERC-721 provides core methods that allow tracking the owner of a unique identifier, as well as a permissioned way[clarification needed] for the owner to transfer the asset to others.[100]

The ERC-1155 standard offers "semi-fungibility", as well as providing an analogue to ERC-721 functionality (meaning that an ERC-721 asset can be built using ERC-1155). Unlike ERC-721 where a unique ID represents a single asset, the unique ID of an ERC-1155 token represents a class of assets, and there is an additional quantity field to represent the amount of the class that a particular wallet has.[102] Assets of the same class are interchangeable, and a user can transfer any amount of assets to others.[102]

Issues and criticisms

Unenforceability of copyright

As an image on the web, the digital art linked to a non-fungible token may be right-clicked and saved like any other picture file
As an image on the web, the digital art linked to a non-fungible token may be right-clicked and saved like any other picture file

Because the contents of NFTs are publicly accessible, anybody can easily copy a file referenced by an NFT. Furthermore, the ownership of an NFT on the blockchain does not inherently convey legally enforceable intellectual property rights to the file.

It has become well known that an NFT image can be copied or saved from a web browser by using a right click menu to download the referenced image. NFT supporters disparage this duplication of NFT artwork as "right-clicker mentality". One collector quoted by Vice compared the value of a purchased NFT (in contrast to an unpurchased copy of the underlying asset) to that of a status symbol "to show off that they can afford to pay that much".[9]

The "right-clicker mentality" phrase spread virally after its introduction, particularly among those who were critical of the NFT marketplace and who appropriated the term to flaunt their ability to capture digital art backed by NFT with ease.[9] This criticism was promoted by Australian programmer Geoffrey Huntley who created "The NFT Bay", modeled after The Pirate Bay. The NFT Bay advertised a torrent file purported to contain 19 terabytes of digital art NFT images. Huntley compared his work to an art project from Pauline Pantsdown, and hoped the site would help educate users on what NFTs are and are not.[103]

Storage off-chain

NFTs that represent digital art generally do not store the associated artwork file on the blockchain due to the large size of such a file. Such a token functions like a certificate of ownership, with a web address that points to the piece of art in question; this however makes the art itself vulnerable to link rot.[20]

Environmental concerns

See also: Environmental impact of cryptocurrencies

NFT purchases and sales are enabled by the high energy usage, and consequent greenhouse gas emissions, associated with blockchain transactions.[104] Though all forms of Ethereum transactions have an impact on the environment, the direct impact of transaction is also dependent upon the size of the Ethereum transaction.[105] The proof-of-work protocol required to regulate and verify blockchain transactions on networks such as Ethereum consumes a large amount of electricity.[106] To estimate the carbon footprint of a given NFT transaction requires a variety of assumptions or estimations about the manner in which that transaction is set up on the blockchain, the economic behavior of blockchain miners (and the energy demands of their mining equipment),[107] and the amount of renewable energy being used on these networks.[108] There are also conceptual questions, such as whether the carbon footprint estimate for an NFT purchase should incorporate some portion of the ongoing energy demand of the underlying network, or just the marginal impact of that particular purchase.[109] An analogy might be the carbon footprint associated with an additional passenger on a given airline flight.[104]

Some NFT technologies use validation protocols such as proof of stake that use much less energy per validation cycle. Other approaches to reducing electricity include the use of off-chain transactions as part of minting an NFT.[104] A number of NFT art sites hope to address these concerns, and some are moving to technologies and protocols with lower associated footprints.[110] Others now allow the option of buying carbon offsets when making NFT purchases, although the environmental benefits of this have been questioned.[111] In some instances, NFT artists have decided against selling some of their own work to limit carbon emission contributions.[112] Though there are now "eco-friendly" NFTs, Ethereum still dominates the NFT market, resulting in an impact on the environment. [113]

Artist and buyer fees

Sales platforms charge artists and buyers fees for minting, listing, claiming, and secondary sales. Analysis of NFT markets in March 2021, in the immediate aftermath of Beeple's "Everydays: the First 5000 Days" selling for US$69.3 million, found that most NFT artworks were selling for less than US$200, with a third selling for less than US$100.[114] Those selling NFTs below $100 were paying platform fees between 72.5% and 157.5% of that amount. On average the fees make 100.5% of the price, meaning that such artists were on average paying more money in fees than they were making in sales.[114]

Plagiarism and fraud

There have been cases of artists having their work sold by others as an NFT, without permission.[115] After the artist Qing Han died in 2020, her identity was assumed by a fraudster and a number of her works became available for purchase as NFTs.[116] Similarly, a seller posing as Banksy succeeded in selling an NFT supposedly made by the artist for $336,000 in 2021; with the seller in this case refunding the money after the case drew media attention.[117] The ease of creating plagiarized NFT works, along with the anonymity of minting NFTs, makes it hard to pursue legal action against NFT plagiarists.[118]

Some NFT marketplaces responded to cases of plagiarism by creating "takedown teams" to respond to artist complaints. The NFT marketplace OpenSea has rules against plagiarism and deepfakes (non-consensual intimate imagery). Some artists criticized OpenSea's efforts, saying they are slow to respond to takedown requests and that artists are subject to support scams from users who claim to be representatives from the platform.[45] Others argue that there is no market incentive for NFT marketplaces to crack down on plagiarism.[118]

Security

In January 2022, it was reported that some NFTs were being exploited by sellers to unknowingly gather user IP addresses.[124]

Pyramid/Ponzi scheme claims

The structure of the NFT market resembles a pyramid or Ponzi scheme, in which early adopters profit at the expense of those buying in later.[125]

Rug pulls

A "rug pull" is a scam, similar to an exit scam or a pump and dump scheme, in which the developers of an NFT or other blockchain project hype the value of a project to pump up the price and then suddenly sell all their tokens to lock in massive profits or otherwise abandon the project while removing liquidity, permanently destroying the value of the project.[126][127] Rug pulls have become an increasingly common hazard when buying NFTs, with the proceeds of some rug pulls being valued at hundreds of thousands or even millions of dollars.[128] Rug pulls accounted for 37 percent of all crypto-related scam revenue in 2021, according to one analysis.[129]

In popular culture

A comedy sketch on the March 27, 2021, episode of Saturday Night Live featured characters explaining NFTs through rap to US Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen, as played by Kate McKinnon.[130]

The 2021 Paramount+ television film South Park: Post Covid: The Return of Covid featured an adult version of Butters Stotch in his Professor Chaos persona tricking people into purchasing NFTs in 2061. The film portrays them as a poor investment, and Chaos has grown so adept at selling them that he is locked in a mental institution.[131]

See also

References

  1. ^ "NFTs Hit $17B In Trading In 2021, Up 21,000%". www.pymnts.com. March 10, 2022. Retrieved May 5, 2022.
  2. ^ Genç, Ekin (October 5, 2021). "Investors Spent Millions on 'Evolved Apes' NFTs. Then They Got Scammed". Vice Media. Retrieved November 9, 2021.((cite web)): CS1 maint: url-status (link)
  3. ^ Hawkins, John (January 13, 2022). "NFTs, an overblown speculative bubble inflated by pop culture and crypto mania". The Conversation. Retrieved May 7, 2022.
  4. ^ Wilson, Kathleen Bridget; Karg, Adam; Ghaderi, Hadi (October 2021). "Prospecting non-fungible tokens in the digital economy: Stakeholders and ecosystem, risk and opportunity". Business Horizons: S0007681321002019. doi:10.1016/j.bushor.2021.10.007. S2CID 240241342.
  5. ^ Mayor, Daniel (April 4, 2022). "NFTs and the Legitimizing Power of Copyright".
  6. ^ Dean, Sam (March 11, 2021). "$69 million for digital art? The NFT craze, explained". Los Angeles Times. Retrieved March 12, 2021.
  7. ^ a b Kastrenakes, Jacob (March 11, 2021). "Beeple sold an NFT for $69 million". The Verge. Archived from the original on March 21, 2021. Retrieved March 21, 2021.
  8. ^ Mendis, Dinusha (August 24, 2021). "When you buy an NFT, you don't completely own it – here's why". The Conversation. Retrieved November 23, 2021.((cite web)): CS1 maint: url-status (link)
  9. ^ a b c Gault, Matthew (November 3, 2021). "What the Hell Is 'Right-Clicker Mentality'?". Vice. Retrieved November 3, 2021.
  10. ^ "WTF Is an NFT, Anyway? And Should I Care?". Wired. ISSN 1059-1028. Retrieved March 13, 2021.
  11. ^ a b Boscovic, Dragan. "How nonfungible tokens work and where they get their value – a cryptocurrency expert explains NFTs". The Conversation. Retrieved April 8, 2021.
  12. ^ Kastrenakes, Jacob (March 25, 2021). "Your Million-Dollar NFT Can Break Tomorrow If You're Not Careful". The Verge. Retrieved March 31, 2021.
  13. ^ Gallagher, Jacob (March 15, 2021). "NFTs Are the Biggest Internet Craze. Do They Work for Sneakers?". The Wall Street Journal. ISSN 0099-9660. Retrieved June 26, 2021.
  14. ^ a b Thaddeus-Johns, Josie (March 11, 2021). "What Are NFTs, Anyway? One Just Sold for $69 Million". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved June 26, 2021.
  15. ^ Salmon, Felix (March 12, 2021). "How to exhibit your very own $69 million Beeple". Axios. Retrieved March 13, 2021.
  16. ^ Clark, Mitchell (March 11, 2021). "NFTs, explained". The Verge. Retrieved March 11, 2021.
  17. ^ "NFT blockchain drives surge in digital art auctions". BBC. March 3, 2021. Retrieved March 12, 2021.
  18. ^ Majocha, Courtney. "Memes for Sale? Making sense of NFTs". Harvard Law Today. Retrieved June 26, 2021.
  19. ^ Cascone, Sarah (May 7, 2021). "Sotheby's Is Selling the First NFT Ever Minted – and Bidding Starts at $100". Artnet News. Retrieved November 12, 2021.
  20. ^ a b Dash, Anil (April 2, 2021). "NFTs Weren't Supposed to End Like This". The Atlantic. Retrieved May 5, 2021.
  21. ^ Ostroff, Caitlin (May 8, 2021). "The NFT Origin Story, Starring Digital Cats". The Wall Street Journal. ISSN 0099-9660. Retrieved December 12, 2021.
  22. ^ "The Cult of CryptoPunks". TechCrunch. Retrieved May 5, 2021.
  23. ^ a b c Entriken, William; Shirley, Dieter; Evans, Jacob; Natassia, Sachs (January 24, 2018). "EIP-721: Non-Fungible Token Standard". Ethereum Improvement Proposals. Retrieved October 28, 2021.((cite web)): CS1 maint: url-status (link)
  24. ^ Urbach, Nils (December 13, 2019). "NFTs in Practice – Non-Fungible Tokens as Core Component of a Blockchain-based Event Ticketing Application" (PDF). Fraunhofer Research Center, Finance and Information Management. Retrieved October 28, 2021.((cite web)): CS1 maint: url-status (link)
  25. ^ "Should You Buy a Bitcoin-Inspired Image of Lindsay Lohan?". Bloomberg.com. March 8, 2021. Retrieved April 7, 2021.
  26. ^ Abbruzzese, Jason (June 16, 2017). "This ethereum-based project could change how we think about digital art". Mashable. Retrieved April 6, 2021.
  27. ^ a b "CryptoKitties craze slows down transactions on Ethereum". BBC News. December 5, 2017. Retrieved May 8, 2022.
  28. ^ "The NFT Market Tripled Last Year, and It's Gaining Even More Momentum in 2021". Morning Brew. Retrieved April 8, 2021.
  29. ^ "NFTs Are Shaking Up the Art World – But They Could Change So Much More". Time. Retrieved April 6, 2021.
  30. ^ "U.S. NFT trademarks applications skyrocketed 400x in 2021 with 15 registrations daily in 2022". February 16, 2022.
  31. ^ a b "U.S. NFT trademarks applications skyrocketed 400x in 2021 with 15 registrations daily in 2022". February 16, 2022.
  32. ^ "NFT + Metaverse Trademark Tote Board".
  33. ^ Howcroft, Elizabeth (March 17, 2021). "Explainer: NFTs are hot. So what are they?". Reuters. Retrieved April 6, 2021.
  34. ^ Vigna, Paul (May 3, 2022). "NFT Sales Are Flatlining". The Wall Street Journal. Retrieved May 5, 2022.
  35. ^ "NFTs' Nifty Copyright Issues - Intellectual Property - Canada". www.mondaq.com.
  36. ^ Patterson, Dan (March 4, 2021). "Blockchain company buys and burns Banksy artwork to turn it into a digital original". CBS News. Retrieved March 17, 2021.
  37. ^ "Pak Breaks Record for Most Expensive NFT Sale". HYPEBEAST. December 7, 2021. Retrieved January 16, 2022.
  38. ^ Thaddeus-Johns, Josie (March 11, 2021). "What Are NFTs, Anyway? One Just Sold for $69 Million". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved April 14, 2021.
  39. ^ Sugiura, Eri (October 13, 2021). "NFTs turn Japan's manga and anime into genuine art". Financial Times. Retrieved November 4, 2021.
  40. ^ "Banksy art burned, destroyed and sold as token in 'money-making stunt'". BBC News. March 9, 2021. Retrieved October 13, 2021.
  41. ^ a b Iscoe, Adam (May 8, 2021). "Burnt Banksy's Inflammatory N.F.T. Not-Art". The New Yorker. Retrieved November 18, 2021.
  42. ^ Lu, Fei (January 6, 2022). "Does NFT Art Have A Place In The Museum In 2022?". Jing Culture and Commerce. Retrieved January 6, 2022.((cite web)): CS1 maint: url-status (link)
  43. ^ "Why many art collectors are staying away from the NFT gold rush". The Independent. April 30, 2021. Retrieved January 27, 2022.
  44. ^ "Natively Digital: A Curated NFT Sale". sothebys.com.
  45. ^ a b c "Web3's early promise for artists tainted by rampant stolen works and likenesses". TechCrunch. Retrieved January 30, 2022.
  46. ^ Quiroz-Gutierrez, Marco (March 22, 2021). "NFTs Are Spurring a Digital Land Grab – in Videogame Worlds". The Wall Street Journal. Archived from the original on March 22, 2021. Retrieved March 23, 2021.
  47. ^ Alexander, Cristina (October 15, 2021). "Is Heroes & Empires free to play?". Gamepur. Gamurs. Archived from the original on November 11, 2021.
  48. ^ Tepper, Fitz (March 21, 2018). "CryptoKitties raises $12M from Andreessen Horowitz and Union Square Ventures". TechCrunch. Retrieved April 7, 2021.
  49. ^ Entriken, William (June 22, 2018). "Move EIP 721 to Final (#1170) ethereum/EIPs@b015a86". GitHub. Retrieved November 7, 2021.((cite web)): CS1 maint: url-status (link)
  50. ^ Jiang, Sisi (October 15, 2021). "Good Riddance: Steam Bans Games That Feature Crypto And NFTs". Kotaku. Archived from the original on October 15, 2021.
  51. ^ "Ubisoft's NFT Announcement Has Been Intensely Disliked". Kotaku. Retrieved December 23, 2021.
  52. ^ "Ubisoft Developers Confused, Upset Over NFT Plans". Game Rant. December 15, 2021. Retrieved December 23, 2021.
  53. ^ Jeffrey, Cal. "Game Developers Conference report: most developers frown on blockchain games". TechSpot. Retrieved January 21, 2022.
  54. ^ Thomas, Dana (October 4, 2021). "Dolce & Gabbana Just Set a $6 Million Record for Fashion NFTs". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved January 20, 2022.
  55. ^ Lee, Isabelle (November 17, 2021). "Luxury NFTs could become a $56 billion market by 2030 and could see 'dramatically' increased demand thanks to the metaverse, Morgan Stanley says". Insider. Retrieved January 20, 2022.((cite web)): CS1 maint: url-status (link)
  56. ^ Stassen, Murray (March 12, 2021). "Music-related NFT sales have topped $25m in the past month". Music Business Worldwide. Retrieved May 7, 2021.
  57. ^ Brown, Abram. "Largest NFT Sale Ever Came From A Business School Dropout Turned Star DJ". Forbes. Retrieved May 20, 2021.
  58. ^ Barcelin, Jason (May 1, 2021). "Las Vegas DJ-producer makes millions selling NFTs". Las Vegas Review-Journal. Retrieved October 13, 2021.
  59. ^ Hissong, Samantha (March 3, 2021). "Kings of Leon Will Be the First Band to Release an Album as an NFT". Rolling Stone. Retrieved May 19, 2021.
  60. ^ "CEO of Sweet Talks NFT Partnership with Rapper Lil Pump". Cheddar. March 23, 2021. Retrieved March 29, 2021.
  61. ^ Curto, Justin (March 18, 2021). "Musician NFT Projects, Ranked by How Many F's I Can Give". Vulture. Retrieved March 29, 2021.
  62. ^ "Rappers and NFTs – How Hip-Hop Is Cashing In on Non-Fungible Tokens". XXL Mag. March 23, 2021. Retrieved March 29, 2021.
  63. ^ Kastrenakes, Jacob (March 1, 2021). "Grimes sold $6 million worth of digital art as NFTs". The Verge. Retrieved April 7, 2021.
  64. ^ Halperin, Shirley (April 21, 2021). "Mike Dean and Shepard Fairey Team for NFT Offering 'OBEY 4:22'". Variety. Retrieved May 7, 2021.
  65. ^ Kaufman, Gil. "Eminem's First NFT Drop, 'Shady Con,' Includes One-of-a-Kind Slim Shady-Produced Beats". Billboard. Retrieved May 19, 2021.
  66. ^ Heal, Jordan. "Deadpool posters can now be bought as NFTs". Coin Rivet. Retrieved May 19, 2021 – via Yahoo!.
  67. ^ Ravindran, Manori (March 15, 2021). "NFT Craze Enters Film World: 'Claude Lanzmann' Documentary is First Oscar Nominee to Be Released as Digital Token". Variety. Retrieved April 14, 2021.
  68. ^ Bosselman, Haley (March 31, 2021). "'Godzilla vs. Kong' to Have First Major Motion Picture NFT Art Release". Variety. Retrieved April 14, 2021.
  69. ^ D'Alessandro, Anthony (April 13, 2021). "Kevin Smith To Sell Horror Movie 'Killroy Was Here' As NFT, Launches Jay And Silent Bob's Crypto Studio". Deadline. Retrieved April 14, 2021.
  70. ^ Goldsmith, Jill (September 8, 2021). "Enderby Entertainment's Pandemic Film 'Zero Contact' To Premiere On New NFT Platform Vuele; Watch The Trailer – Update". Deadline Hollywood. Retrieved September 15, 2021.
  71. ^ Finn, John (April 30, 2021). "World's First Movie Score & Soundtrack For Sale As An NFT". ScreenRant. Retrieved September 8, 2021.
  72. ^ Diaz, Johnny (November 17, 2021). "Miramax Sues Quentin Tarantino Over Planned 'Pulp Fiction' NFTs". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Archived from the original on December 28, 2021. Retrieved November 17, 2021.
  73. ^ "NFTs and me: meet the people trying to sell their memes for millions". The Guardian. June 23, 2021. Retrieved July 17, 2021.
  74. ^ "Iconic 'Doge' meme NFT breaks record, selling for $4 million". NBC News. Retrieved July 17, 2021.
  75. ^ "Charlie Bit Me NFT sale: Brothers to pay for university with auction money". BBC News. June 3, 2021. Retrieved July 17, 2021.
  76. ^ Griffith, Erin (February 22, 2021). "Why an Animated Flying Cat With a Pop-Tart Body Sold for Almost $600,000". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved July 17, 2021.
  77. ^ "Zoë Roth sells 'Disaster Girl' meme as NFT for $500,000". BBC News. April 30, 2021. Retrieved July 17, 2021.
  78. ^ "Virtual real estate plot sells for close to $1 mln". Reuters. June 18, 2021.
  79. ^ Dickson, EJ (March 16, 2021). "Porn Creators Are Getting In on the NFT Craze". Rolling Stone. Retrieved March 30, 2021.
  80. ^ a b Whitford, Emma (May 28, 2021). "UC Berkeley Will Auction NFTs for 2 Nobel Prize Patents". Inside Higher Ed. Retrieved May 29, 2021.
  81. ^ Starr, Michael (April 1, 2021). "Activist turns anti-Nazi act into commodified digital art". The Jerusalem Post. Retrieved October 13, 2021.
  82. ^ "CryptoKitties developer launches NBA TopShot, a new blockchain-based collectible collab with the NBA". TechCrunch. Retrieved April 9, 2021.
  83. ^ Cooper, Daniel (March 11, 2021). "NFTs are both priceless and worthless". Engadget. Retrieved April 9, 2021.
  84. ^ "Auction of Jack Dorsey Tweet NFT Comes in Millions Below Target". Bloomberg News. Retrieved April 14, 2022. (Subscription required.)
  85. ^ Howcroft, Elizabeth (August 25, 2021). "NFT sales surge as speculators pile in, sceptics see bubble". Reuters. Retrieved January 17, 2022.
  86. ^ Reyburn, Scott (March 30, 2021). "Art's NFT Question: Next Frontier in Trading, or a New Form of Tulip?". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Archived from the original on December 28, 2021. Retrieved May 3, 2021.
  87. ^ Small, Zachary (April 28, 2021). "As Auctioneers and Artists Rush Into NFTs, Many Collectors Stay Away". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Archived from the original on December 28, 2021. Retrieved May 3, 2021.
  88. ^ Cuthbertson, Anthony (March 24, 2021). "NFT MILLIONAIRE BEEPLE SAYS CRYPTO ART IS BUBBLE AND WILL 'ABSOLUTELY GO TO ZERO'". The Independent. Retrieved January 5, 2022.(subscription required)
  89. ^ Tarmy, James; Kharif, Olga (April 15, 2021). "These Crypto Bros Want to Be the Guggenheims of NFT Art". Bloomberg Businessweek. Retrieved April 29, 2021.
  90. ^ Vanek Smithj, Stacey; Woods, Darian (August 4, 2021). "The Origin of Value: The Greater Fools Theory: The Indicator from Planet Money". NPR. Retrieved January 26, 2022.
  91. ^ Owen, Allison; Chase, Isabella (December 2, 2021). "NFTs: A New Frontier for Money Laundering?". Royal United Services Institute. Retrieved January 16, 2022.
  92. ^ Coco, Feng (December 2, 2021). "China's market for NFTs, metaverse may drive money laundering". South China Morning Post. Retrieved January 16, 2022.((cite web)): CS1 maint: url-status (link)
  93. ^ "Treasury Releases Study on Illicit Finance in the High-Value Art Market". U.S. Department of the Treasury. Retrieved February 4, 2022.
  94. ^ "Study of the Facilitation of Money Laundering and Terror Finance Through the Trade in Works of Art" (PDF). treasury.gov. United States Department of the Treasury. 2022. p. 26. Retrieved May 11, 2022.
  95. ^ "Two Defendants Charged In Non-Fungible Token ("NFT") Fraud And Money Laundering Scheme". March 24, 2022.
  96. ^ Gallagher, Jacob (March 15, 2021). "NFTs Are the Biggest Internet Craze. Do They Work for Sneakers?". The Wall Street Journal. ISSN 0099-9660. Retrieved April 7, 2021.
  97. ^ "NFTs in Practice – Non-Fungible Tokens as Core Component of a Blockchain-based Event Ticketing Application". Researchgate. Retrieved September 8, 2021.
  98. ^ "How NFTs Are Set to Disrupt the Music Industry". Entrepreneur. Retrieved September 8, 2021.
  99. ^ "I Joined a Penguin NFT Club Because Apparently That's What We Do Now". The New York Times. August 12, 2021. Archived from the original on December 28, 2021.
  100. ^ a b "EIP-721: ERC-721 Non-Fungible Token Standard". Ethereum Improvement Proposals. Retrieved April 5, 2021.
  101. ^ Volpicelli, Gian (February 24, 2021). "The bitcoin elite are spending millions on collectable memes". Wired UK.
  102. ^ a b "EIP-1155: ERC-1155 Multi Token Standard". Ethereum Improvement Proposals. Retrieved April 5, 2021.
  103. ^ Gault, Matthew (November 18, 2021). "Someone Made a Pirate Bay for NFTs". Vice. Retrieved November 18, 2021.
  104. ^ a b c Calma, Justine (March 15, 2021). "The climate controversy swirling around NFTs". The Verge. Retrieved April 15, 2021.
  105. ^ Marro, Samuele; Donno, Luca (January 29, 2022). "Green NFTs: A Study on the Environmental Impact of Cryptoart Technologies". arXiv:2202.00003 [cs].
  106. ^ Krause, Max; Tolaymat, Thabet (2018). "Quantification of energy and carbon costs for mining cryptocurrencies". Nature Sustainability. 1: 814. doi:10.1038/s41893-018-0188-8.
  107. ^ deVries, Alex (May 16, 2018). "Bitcoin's Growing Energy Problem". Joule.
  108. ^ Cuen, Leigh (March 21, 2021). "The debate about cryptocurrency and energy consumption". TechCrunch.
  109. ^ De-Mattei, Shanti Escalante (April 14, 2021). "Should You Worry About the Environmental Impact of Your NFTs?". Art News. Retrieved June 2, 2021.
  110. ^ Matney, Lucas (March 30, 2021). "ConsenSys launches a more energy-efficient NFT ecosystem with a project from artist Damien Hirst as its first drop". Techcrunch. Retrieved April 21, 2021.
  111. ^ Di Liscia, Valentina (April 5, 2021). "Does Carbon Offsetting Really Address the NFT Ecological Dilemma?". Hypoallergic. Retrieved April 21, 2021.
  112. ^ Howson, Peter. "NFTs: why digital art has such a massive carbon footprint". The Conversation. Retrieved April 6, 2021.
  113. ^ "Blockchains compete for the NFT market, but Ethereum remains the dominant player — Report". Retrieved April 18, 2022.
  114. ^ a b Kinsella, Eileen (April 29, 2021). "Think Everyone Is Getting Rich Off NFTs? Most Sales Are Actually $200 or Less, According to One Report". Artnet News. Retrieved November 19, 2021.
  115. ^ Williams, Rhiannon (April 2, 2021). "NFT digital art: Would you pay millions of pounds for art you can't touch?". inews Technology. Retrieved August 28, 2021.
  116. ^ Kwan, Jacklin (July 28, 2021). "An artist died. Then thieves made NFTs of her work". Wired. Retrieved August 28, 2021.
  117. ^ "Fake Banksy NFT sold through artist's website for £244k". BBC News. August 31, 2021.
  118. ^ a b Beckett, Lois (January 29, 2022). "'Huge mess of theft and fraud:' artists sound alarm as NFT crime proliferates". The Guardian. Retrieved January 31, 2022.
  119. ^ a b Schneider, Tim (April 21, 2021). "The Gray Market: How a Brazen Hack of That $69 Million Beeple Revealed the True Vulnerability of the NFT Market (and Other Insights)". artnet news. Retrieved August 28, 2021.
  120. ^ "OpenSea admits insider trading of NFTs it promoted". BBC News. September 16, 2021. Retrieved November 22, 2021.
  121. ^ Clark, Mitchell (October 26, 2021). "Photoshop's new NFT button could prove you're the real digital artist". The Verge. Retrieved November 24, 2021.
  122. ^ Mwanza, Kevin (December 6, 2021). "New Study: NFT Prices Are Manipulated by Few with Wash Trades (Artificial Demand)". Moguldom. Retrieved January 16, 2022.
  123. ^ "Traders are selling themselves their own NFTs to drive up prices". Engadget. Retrieved February 6, 2022.
  124. ^ Cox, Joseph (January 27, 2022). "This NFT on OpenSea Will Steal Your IP Address". Vice. Retrieved February 2, 2022.
  125. ^ Kelly, Jemima (January 5, 2022). "Matt Damon's crypto ad is more than just cringeworthy". Financial Times. Retrieved January 26, 2022.
  126. ^ "Glossary: Rug Pull". Binance Academy. Retrieved May 13, 2022.
  127. ^ Fisher, Luke (April 15, 2022). "Scams explained: What is a rug pull? Are they illegal?". Your NFTs. Retrieved May 13, 2022.
  128. ^ Abbasi, Khashayar (May 13, 2022). "Top 6 NFT Rug Pulls". Bankless Times. Retrieved May 13, 2022.
  129. ^ Fisher, Luke (April 15, 2022). "Scams explained: What is a rug pull? Are they illegal?". Your NFTs. Retrieved May 13, 2022.
  130. ^ Goodwin, Jazmin. "Still not sure what NFTs are? 'SNL' explains with Eminem parody". CNN. Retrieved April 6, 2021.
  131. ^ "Watch 'South Park' Hilariously Explain NFT Craze in 'Post COVID 2' Viral Video". Maxim. December 22, 2021. Retrieved January 28, 2022.

External links

Digital art
Cryptocurrencies
Categories